Liverpool suffered a comprehensive defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, with Manchester City cruising to a 3-0 victory.<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola\u2019s men marked his 1000th match in management in style, as goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez, and Jeremy Doku sealed a dominant win. For Arne Slot and his side, the result was another setback, leaving them eighth in the Premier League table \u2014 eight points adrift of leaders Arsenal.<\/p>\n
Rooney singles out Salah after City defeat<\/p>\n
Football pundit Wayne Rooney has once again criticised Mohamed Salah, this time for his lack of defensive effort in Liverpool\u2019s loss to City. The former Manchester United star argued that Salah didn\u2019t do enough to support right-back Conor Bradley, who endured a torrid time against man of the match Jeremy Doku.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BBC Match of the Day, as reported by The Mirror, Rooney said:<\/p>\n
\u201cSalah\u2019s in the team to score and create goals \u2014 he\u2019s been one of the best in the Premier League for years. But in big games, you\u2019ve got to double up.<\/p>\n
You have to get back and help your teammate. Conor Bradley had a really tough game today and was left on his own. Ryan Gravenberch tried to cover, but that opened up other spaces. Salah has to track back and help him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salah\u2019s struggles under the spotlight<\/p>\n
The Egyptian forward has found it hard to hit top form this season, managing just four goals in 11 Premier League appearances \u2014 a significant drop-off from his usual standards.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time Rooney has called out Salah this season, and with the goals drying up, his defensive work rate is now under more scrutiny.<\/p>\n
From unstoppable to under pressure<\/p>\n
Last season, Salah was sensational, scoring 29 league goals and providing 18 assists, driving Liverpool to the Premier League title. But this term, both he and the team have failed to replicate that form.<\/p>\n
With Liverpool struggling to keep pace with Arsenal and Manchester City, Salah\u2019s dip in performance has become one of the key talking points in what\u2019s proving to be a frustrating campaign for Arne Slot\u2019s men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool suffered a comprehensive defeat at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, with Manchester City cruising to a 3-0 victory. Pep Guardiola\u2019s men marked his 1000th match in management in style, as goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez, and Jeremy Doku sealed a dominant win. For Arne Slot and his side, the result was another setback, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/COS-FeaturedHero-Image-Templates-66-1200x722.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54110,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54108\/revisions\/54110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}